DUSHANBE, January 27, 2012, Asia-Plus – Tajik law enforcement authorities have seized some 106 kilogram of narcotics in the southern Khatlon province.
A source at one of the power wielding structures told Asia-Plus Friday afternoon two persons have been detained in Khatlon’s Qubodiyon district for an attempt of smuggling 106 kilograms of hashish.
One of the detainees is the son of retired general who had headed the Special Property Committee in the late 1990s and the other one is the son of diplomat.
A special operation was carried out in the Qubodiyon district more than two weeks ago but this fact has become known only today because the law enforcement authorities have concealed it.
Meanwhile, the source says traffic police officers in the Qubodiyon where trying to stop Nissan Patrol with tinted glass and “cool” license plate “7777” on January 10, but the driver did not obey. “The vehicle was stopped later, but the driver and his passenger managed to throw a sack of narcotics into the yard of one of houses. The householder notified police of the sack of narcotic drug that tested positive to hashish weighing 106 kilograms,” the source said, noting that the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) is investigating the case.
We will recall that an official source at the Interior Ministry told Asia-Plus on January 13 that vanity license plates such as “8888” and ‘”7777” belonging to immediate relatives of the first persons of the country have been removed under the confidential order from above. According to him, the decision is connected with the fact that permissiveness of owners of the “golden” license plates on the roads has displeased citizens.
In his address to the government meeting, President Emomali Rahmon on January 18 lashed out at officials for privileging their children. Particularly notorious are the offspring with posh cars cruising up and down Roudaki Avenue in central Dushanbe, enjoying immunity and impunity because they have special number plates that distinguish them to police, such as “7777” and “8888.”
Numbers are important in Tajikistan, where the right one can earn you a salute from the country”s traffic policemen.
We will recall that several police officers were arrested in early January for their alleged involvement in drug trafficking. Among them is Faridoun Umarov, the chief of anti-drug squad within the Farkhor police department.
Faridoun Umarov is the brother of the SCNS first deputy head Mansour Umarov and the nephew of Deputy Interior Minister Said Jurakhonov.
Major Zafar Mirzoyev, the chief of the department within the Interior Ministry directorate for combating drug trafficking (drug police), and Lieutenant-Colonel Tohirkhon Sherov, the chief of the drug control squad within the Dushanbe police directorate were arrested along with Faridoun Umarov in early January.
